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CEBU—Port officials here said the island may need a new and
bigger international port in the medium term, as the
present port easily gets congested and its berthing
spaces are unable to accommodate larger vessels.
Cebu
Ports Authority general manager Angelo Verdan said two
areas are being considered as site for the new
international port—one is in the town of Cordova on
Mactan Island, the other at the border of Consolacion
and Liloan towns about 20 km north of Cebu City.
“[The
present port] is not shallow but it could not anymore
accommodate bigger vessels that would require deeper
berthing spaces,” Verdan said.
He said
the Cebu International Port (CIP) in Cebu City’s north
reclamation area could still accommodate ships for about
10 more years. A new international port must then be
built.
In 2002
a feasibility study was conducted by Japanese
contractors on the Consolacion-Liloan port. They
estimated the cost of the 120-hectare reclamation and
construction of the port infrastructure would reach P18
billion.
Verdan
said the study is now being updated as the Cebu
provincial government expressed interest in the project.
The Port
of Cebu handles around 100,000 domestic and 1,000
international ship calls a year.
Verdan
said bigger international cargo vessels now require
15-meter-deep berths, but the existing depth in CIP’s
Mactan Channel is around 8.5 meters.
“Bigger
vessels are forced to berth a little further into the
sea, which is very costly and difficult,” he said.
Verdan
ruled out the possibility of dredging the channel. Since
the north reclamation area where the port is located has
been reclaimed, concrete piles have been driven deep
into the seabed to hold the reclaimed area’s groundwork.
He said
the piles are only nine meters deep, so dredging deeper
than nine meters is out of the question as the process
could break the piles and cause the reclamation to
collapse.
Verdan
said development work on the existing Port of Cebu is on
going and focused on the continued clearing of
unnecessary buildings and squatters inside the property.
The
ports body is also constructing a break bulk facility at
the international port to handle non-containerized
cargo. Three silos equipped with conveyor belts are now
under construction, Verdan added. |
